1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to technology for the sharing of a testing and debugging environment for the purpose of both on-line and off-line testing and debugging of firmware functions that are incorporated into devices containing microprocessors, in a wide band switch (switching unit).
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, in narrow band switching little development effort was required because the scale of the firmware was small. In addition, each unit had to be tested individually because the hardware configuration of each was different.
Consequently, it was not permissible for firmware to contain bugs. In an on-line system, if a problem occurred at the site where that system was installed, a great deal of effort was required to investigate the cause.
In recent years, as switch band widths have been becoming wider, in order to lighten the load on software the scale and complexity of the firmware used to control the hardware have been continually increasing. Naturally, since the function of firmware differs depending on the unit into which it is incorporated, a single system can contain several tens of pieces of firmware. In addition, as the scale becomes larger quality deteriorates, and more and more problems have been occurring at sites where systems are installed.
In debugging firmware, in the past in-circuit emulators were used, but as hardware has become faster acting, if the device concerned is operating on-line, in some cases it becomes impossible for the operation of an in-circuit emulator to keep up with it so that the in-circuit emulator cannot function normally. In particular, this problem occurs frequently in cases of duplexed devices.